Book 2 - Chapter 17: Hong Tong City

Although I would love to post this on the day I posted the last, it was a descriptive chapter, I blame that.

My neck hurts.

Chapter 17: Hong Tong City

Hong tong’s power was a middle class in this wild mountain, having a city with about a few hundred inhabitants, taking up about 40 thousand kilometer radius, this piece of land was huge, but there wasn’t much people, at most a few hundred thousands, the environment rather vile, in the land was also large amounts of places where the barbarians gathered.

The living areas of the hunters of Tiger Cliff Castle and Lead Eagles was many, normally, they can control about a area of a hundred Kilometer radius, anymore and they would be powerless, there are about Seven to Eight thousand kind of hunter settlements in Hong Tong’s influenced areas.

Here, Hong tong had authority similar to a king, life and death was all under their control. Hong tong a outer and inner sect, the outer sect had the most Thousand and ten thousand Lun masters, Mi Lun masters weregiven a place to govern and those with a Real Ring body and a Real Mi Lun master are all the high forces of the outer sect.

The inner sect is more focused on grooming disciples and taking care of Hong Tong.

Hong tong city was about 40 thousand square kilometers, the governing body all resided in Hong tong city, the only city here.

This was also Xinfeng’s first time seeing a city in this life, standing in front of a city wall about 100 Zhang, both XinFeng and Xinyao had their heads facing upwards, Xinyao said “Brother, what is this? It’s higher than the Cliff walls at Tiger Cliff castle!”

(Puttty: zhang is 丈，throw it into this converter if you wish, http://www.123cha.com/unit-converter/length.php)

XinFeng said “This….it should be the city wall, unbelievable, what’s the point of having such a high city wall?”

Leibao answered “That is because of the war with the barbarians, without the protection of the city wall, it is very hard to block the attacks of the barbarians.”

The trio of grandfather and grandchildren had came to Hong Chen city under in snow, accompanying them was Hong Chen and his disciple along with a team of 20 thousand Lun masters. There was also 2 giant camel beasts, something XinFeng had never seen before, it was similar to the single horned bull in his past life, of course much bigger, the body reaching 8 meters, the height 3 meters, with a thick back and shoulder, a large amount of strength, it has a unexpectedly gentle personality.

There was a cargo box on the camel beast, capable of carrying things and people. These kind of camel beast we extremely precious, those without power of money cannot obtain one.

The road from Tiger Cliff Castle to Hong Tong city took a out 17 days, the camel beast’s speed isn’t bad, letting them reach Hong tong city without any trouble.

Blue stone bricked wall and a tall city door, patrolling teams of hundred Lun masters and a heavy check at the door, luckily Hong tong the outer sect elder was there, without any long delay, the group of 2 camel beasts and thousand Lun masters entered the city.

After entering the city, both XinFeng and Xinyao’s eyes were not big enough anymore. This city was very prosperous, one must know that within 40 thousand kilometers, there was only this city, big merchants bring large amounts of items here, small time merchants bring in merchandise from very where, it was a gathering point for merchants.

XinFeng was unable to become accustomed with so many people at once, let alone Xinyao, the little lady had never seen so many people packed together.

Actually XinFeng had seen more groups of people at once in his past life, but after living here for a long time, he had gotten used to seeing only 2-3 people at once, suddenly seeing so many people, he took a while to calm himself.

Countless vendors opened shop at the road side, walking down the road, one can see different types of people as well as different types of merchandise laced on long tables, every stall had hung up beast skins to shelter them, however it wasn’t for the shade, it was to block away the snow, it was still snowing. There were also copper pots in each store, burning with firewood, the whole street was very lively, occasionally there would be bargaining attempts heard and the warm brought from the fire along with the smoke.

On the wide bluestone bricked road, there was a bustling road traffic of both people and cars, but XinFeng’s group was very eye catching due to their two precious camel beasts, these kind of camel beasts can only be owned by prestigious families, it was a symbol of their identity.

Because of the large amount of people on the road, the crowd all walked slowly, XinFeng and Xinyao had already came out of the camel cargo, the both of them walked as they holded each other’s hand along with old man Lei Bao.

The old man sighed with emotion “This border town is still so enchanting.”

XinFeng suddenly widened his eyes and said shocked “Barbarians? Barbarians!”

The old man said “Don’t be shocked, the Barbarians can enter Hong Chen city .”XinFeng asked “Aren’t the barbarians our enemies? How do they dare to enter our city?”

Hong Chen laughed as he explained “It’s nothing strange, in the wild of course it would be either you die or I die, but you must know that the barbarians also produce many things, all of which is what big merchants need, also, they bring in many precious prey that has no use in their hands, which is why they brought it here to trade for their daily necessities.”

XinFeng suddenly thought back to his fight with the barbarians and the spears in their hands, and asked “Could it be that they also trade their weapons with us?”

Hong Chen answered “Of course, they also trade their weapons, but for one spear of theirs we need to take out many things, we have to at least take about 3-4 times more than what we trade for with ourselves.”

XinFeng said “What if the Barbarians kill people in the city.”

Hong Chen laughed “That won’t happen, look at the sides of the Barbarians…..it is all hundred and thousand Lun masters looking after them, hoho, the barbarians won’t dare to do anything rash.” He then continued “Also it is not as if any barbarians can come, only about a dozen of barbarians of big tribes have the qualifications, they already have a agreement, fighting with barbarians were normal and so it trading with them, it is nothing strange.”

A few barbarians rushed a few big horned bulls, walking past XinFeng, big horned bulls had a gentle personality, entirely different from barbarians, they were used for transporting goods by both humans and barbarians, those few big horned bulls were carrying large amounts of skin and leather bags on their backs, whatever that was in the leather bag unknown.

These barbarians were different from those XinFeng saw before, they wore clothing similar to human’s, of course they were still tall and strong and had their heavy bloody smell, their aura still rather proud, each of their mouths curled in disdain and their eyes tilted, giving a feeling that they are strong while the rest were weak.

XinFeng said uncontrollably “These barbarians are asking for a beating.”

Hong Chen said “It’s normal, in the wild they are the top tiered hunters, it is impossible for untrained people to win against them, being proud was normal, they are ripe Barbarians, much stronger than unripe barbarians.”

This was XinFeng’s first time hearing the term ripe Barbarians, he said “Ripe barbarians? Unripe barbarians?”

Wenyan rolled her eyes and said “Unripe barbarians are much more wild, not capable of communicating with us rip barbarians are capable of that, of course in the wild, no matter ripe or unripe barbarians, you just kill them, they similarly will not have mercy.

XinFeng finally understood, humans need the produce of the barbarian’s while they needed the humans for various living necessities, that was enough reason for contact, which was why they could see barbarians in Hong Tong City.

After turning a few times, the human traffic greatly reduced, XinFeng realized that they had reached the residential area, the stalls on the road gone, but there was still a few street shops along the road and through arched door that had a few hundred Lun masters standing in front of.

One of the thousand Lun masters walked in front and after a few sentences, they were allowed to go in. Hong Chen explained “This archway is leading into Hong tong inner sect.”

XinFeng noticed many children around the age of 13-14 on the road, Hong tong a elder of the outer sect then actually became a full time explaining guide “There children are all preparatory disciples, once they reach 16 year old they will be able to start training, at this time they are all in the learning period, of course they were all tested and have the qualification and potential to train.”

“This batch are the disciples with better qualifications, which is why they are learning in the inner sect, the outer sect also has a lot of preparatory disciples, every year we are looking to receiving many disciples.”

XinFeng laughed “You coming to Tiger Cliff Castle, it to bring me here to learn?”

Hong Chen laughed bitterly “You have senior to teach you, of course you do not need to learn here, from the beginning we never had any ill thoughts.” He attempted to look for a chance to explain himself, hoping to not leave any bad image in the minds of this family.

Small buildings were hidden among the falling snow, quickly they reached in front of one 2 floor stone building that had a strong foundations created with boulders, a square building with a few servants at the door step, hong Chen said “This is a guest room used for accommodating noble guests, senior, you will stay in here today.”

The old man Leibao nodded “Okay, we will still settle down first.”

Hong Chen had gotten a servants to bring their things, which he and Wenyan personally gave to them. He sid as they walked “Behind there is a small market, all the middle men of the inner sect, there are some good things, if you wish to go, ask a servant to being you there.”

This was a big apartment that had 3 rooms, a huge living room. The rooms were very warm, much better than the house Xinfeng lived in at Tiger Cliff Castle, here XinFeng shockingly discovered glass windows, the reason to the bright room.

The living room was filled with a full set of furniture with a slightly odd style, but it was still within the range where XinFeng could understand, a 6 corner table, chairs the height of his waist, a thick beast hide sprawled on the ground and in the corner of the room was a huge glass vase with a few Chimonanthus praecox planted in it, giving off a since smell.

The sleeping quarters was a huge heatable brick bed that room up half of the room, in front of it was a paneled screen and on the bed was a short table that had a delicate design.

(Puttty: the heatable brick bed was a ancient china thingy where you make a brick platform and underneath it you can make a fire to warm it, the panel if um, anyway google and click images. ‘ 炕’ ‘屏风’)

What made XinFeng the most surprised was that that in this apartment actually had a bathroom, and in the bathroom wasn’t just heated water but actually a hot spring, although the apartment was rather small, it was much luxurious than he thought it was, this made him extremely pleased.

Xinyao were more curious though, XinFeng had his memory from his past world to compare but Xinyao had never seen many things, the home in Tiger Cliff Castle was already what she thought great but she never imagined that there was furniture so beautiful, and there was rooms so bright, on the ground was actually many beasts skins, this was too exaggerated, upon entering, she had made many surprised noises.

Wenyan could not help but let out a bit of disdain, people in the wild are like frogs in the well.

———————

To the guy in the content page whose message I accidentally deleted (sorry!) I am not on hiatus, just because the content page isn’t updated doesn’t mean that I am not translating, it means that shin is busy, so please just press the home button to check, if I every go on hiatus I’ll be sure to say something, unless it was a emergency like that time I got sick, damn those ulcers and blisters were painful.

Speaking of which, halfway through translating I went out and stepped on dog poo, is it some kind of curse you people placed on me to make sure I don’t go out anymore? Well it’s working.

-Puttty